Planets and Resources Much More Sparse with Retribution?

I've started at least half a dozen new games with Retribution installed, and each time colonizable planets and mining resources have been extremely sparse. Changing gameplay settings to "abundant" for resources does not make any difference. If I uninstall Retribution, planets and resources return to their normal frequency. Was this a design choice for Retribution, or is there something wrong with my installation? I validated the game files via Steam. It doesn't seem possible to forge an empire with these resources so sparse.

I have noticed exactly this as well and its brutal. The option that works is to set planets and resources to abundant but then nearly every star system has 3 planets. Check out this screenshot of a starting position in this thread

I'm a huge fan of the game, with more than 1,000 hours played, but with planets and resources so widely spaced out, it's hard to get anything going - there's just nothing to work with. I hope they will revisit that decision because to me it seems like a game-breaker, and I really liked some other aspects of Retribution.

Planets are ok, but resources... Damn, too many things need durantium and there's not nearly enough. I think some of the durantium requiring improvements should be "free".

Agreed, what I ended up doing is modding the durantium yield from 1 to 1.25 . Others might want to go higher.

I think the overall problem here is that you cant set resources independent of habitable planets, because resources are defined as a percent of habitable planets.

Ah, yes, I thought about doing that for myself... But I realized I have no idea wich file to edit, nor where

Would you mind telling me what to do, please?

I believe the file is StrategicResourceDefs.xml in data\game or dlc\*crusade* folder*\game.

Either way its easier to copy it to the data/Game/ path in the example mod folder(then enable mods). Files in mod folders get a higher priority so you save yourself from playing the game of whack-a-mole trying to figure which copy the the same XML file gets gets loaded.

It would be a huge improvement if there was some setting for habitable planets in between the current "common" and "abundant" settings. 3 Habitable planets in most systems shifts the balance in favor of colony rushes and is a huge buff to flipping planets through influence, but annoying as that is, it is still way better than the alternative of extremely rare number of habitable planets you get if you choose "common" habitable planets.

Sometimes, the black hole setting experiences a similar problem of two extremes between(from what I recall) uncommon and rare. Antimatter is either non-existant or an excessive surplus. Are black holes a percentage of total stars?

It would be a huge improvement if there was some setting for habitable planets in between the current "common" and "abundant" settings. 3 Habitable planets in most systems shifts the balance in favor of colony rushes and is a huge buff to flipping planets through influence, but annoying as that is, it is still way better than the alternative of extremely rare number of habitable planets you get if you choose "common" habitable planets.

Sometimes, the black hole setting experiences a similar problem of two extremes between(from what I recall) uncommon and rare. Antimatter is either non-existant or an excessive surplus. Are black holes a percentage of total stars?

The only real change is the Star pacing. I can take a look at the Star types.

Thulium and Promethion are affected some by habitable planets. But Durantium is affected by asteroid fields. I agree it’s a little annoying.

I feel like, it's not really the amount of durantium to mine that is the problem. I am currently producing 16 durantium per turn, at the end of the game (all research done). I tapped the market on what I could buy. I emptied 1/2 of the races of their durantium and prometheon, either by asking for peace right after their surrender (nice exploit there, btw...). I regularly traded for durantium with my allies&friends for as much as I could. Only a quarter of my starbases have been fully upgraded. A tiny fraction of my planets have industrial sectors. Yet, I only have 16 durantium left, one turn worth of production. 5 races left, 4 of wich I am not war, none with any durantium or prometheon left to trade.

In comparison, I have thulium and antimatter to build entire fleets of advanced mass drivers or missile equipped ships. Yet I am producing half of what I make on durantium. And there is still a market for that.

Upgrading an economic starbases require lots of durantium for trade&commerce modules, as well as industrial modules, IIRC. It requires a ton of prometheon for research modules (one of them requires 25 prometheon, the others a tad less). Artefact starbases require prometheon and durantium. Some missile/anti-missile modules require antimater, but the more advanced ones require elerium, just like beam&shields. Every mining upgrades requires durantium. Many of the industrial upgrades on planets require durantium. Almost no modules require thulium, it is mostly used for advanced mass drivers on ship.

Really, durantium is a problem, even if asteroids and resources are set to common.